Avec le soutien de

agenda

Les Maîtres de la scultpure de Côte d'Ivoire

from 14 April 2015 to 26 July 2015

Curator

Lorenz Homberger, Curator of African and Oceanian Art at the Rietberg Museum in Zurich

Eberhard Fischer, Ethnologue and former Director of the Rietberg Museum.

Around the exhibition

Tours, publications and events around the exhibition (in French)

About the exhibition

Western Africa and its masters. Under-estimated for several decades,the art of the Senufo, Lobi, Guro or Dan is now taking its rightfulplace by means of an exhibition revealing the artistic and personalknow-how of its creators.

Long considered in the West as simple artisanal objects, the wooden sculptures produced in Western Africa – and principally in Ivory Coast – reveal their technical qualities and aesthetic power throughout an exhibition tracing the major styles of the region.

The exhibition defends a position that asserts that African art – like Western art – is composed of individual artists. To present the workshops of master sculptors from the late 19th and early 20th century is to affirm their profoundly artistic identity. It is also to introduce the geographical, religious and social context in which some of the major works were created and, at the same time, to initiate the Western eye to the beauty and aesthetic codes of the region. The works and contemporary installations presented as the conclusion to the exhibition confirm the power of this heritage.

This exhibition is co-produced by the Rietberg Museum in Zurich and the KunstundAusstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland in Bonn.